Grissly Prime Rib - Method error or poor quality meat?

The first "prime" (actually choice) rib I made turned out wonderfully. I dry aged it a few days, rubbed with rosemary and garlic, and started with a 500 degree oven for twenty minutes. Turned the oven down to 200 until internal temp was about 125. It was a perfect pink from one end to the other and no chewy grissle.

The last two PR's I've bought have been grissly. If I start with a low oven and or just do low and slow the whole time, will that melt the chewy tissue? Or are these just poor quality roasts?

We like it a good medium rare from end to end. Will slow roasting provide that or will the ends be more cooked?

We're talking about a 3 rib roast, here. After last year I decided no more roasts for Christmas but here we are again and I'm craving it.

If you bring the meat up to a high enough temp to melt collagen/connective tissue, you'll have well done meat. I would assume your last two roasts have just not been of great quality. Prime rib will have some internal chunks of fat, but there shouldn't be a ton of gristle involved.

There is no more gristle from 1 roast to another. Gristle is the fascia that surrounds each muscle. It is present in each and every rib section, regardless of grade or quality, in roughly the same places.

A tougher rib can be identified by its color. The redder it is, the tougher it will be. That is a matter of age, the less age a beef primal has the tougher it is. Look for beef with a pale brick hue.

As far as you "dry aging" your own meat, don't bother. You will see little benefit as true dry aging requires a whole primal with intact fat, near freezing temperature, high humidity, and weeks of time.

I doubt your cooking had anything to do it. The gristle is present in the meat when purchased, and if it could be dissolved through long, slow cooking, it would take hours--like the amount of time it takes for a pot roast or pork shoulder. And one wouldn't wish that cooking treatment on a very expensive cut of meat. Just try to examine the meat more carefully at the market, or find another source. I experience the same thing with ribeye steaks, some have more gristle than others.

I find that a rib roast from the chuck end has more gristle (fascia) - but it also has more fat, which is nice. In Paris I have come across a butcher who offered to remove it and then retied the roast expertly, so that it was super-easy to carve and eat later.At home I just tell my guests to eat around those bits...

Thank you! Always wondered why some ribeyes have so little gristle compared to others; is it appropriate to ask my grocery store meat department for the . . . what? What is the "opposite" of the rib roast from the chuck end? Do I ask for the first couple of ribs?

As far as I know, a rib roast goes from rib 6 through 14 and you start counting from the front of the animal. I don't know what the end opposite of the chuck would be called, but you can definitely see the difference and simply have the butcher cut your roast from the leaner end. This is also where the bones become shorter.